The Bug
When Creepers are near cats, their programmed behavior is to run away if the cat is within 6 blocks of taxicab distance. However, they do not perform this action when elevated on a platform above the ground.
Steps to Reproduce
Summon a cat on an elevated 3x3 block platform and make it sit in the center of the platform.
Summon a creeper and observe that the creeper does not attempt to pathfind away from the cat.
Observe that even after the addition of trapdoors on the sides of the platform, the creeper ignores the cat.
Observed Result
The creeper didn't run away
Expected Result
The creeper would run away
Linked issues
is duplicated by 2
Attachments
Comments 9
Im playing on 1.15.2. and I have a creeper farm and the creepers dont run away from the cats.
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I seem to be encountering the same issue in 1.17.1, though I am using a few vanilla tweaks, and it's possible that the creepers simply aren't registering trapdoors as walkable blocks, which is a separate issue.
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Some additional thoughts on this bug: Fleeing uses pathfinding, and that won't work if the mobs don't have solid full blocks available as potential target locations.
The screenshots by Leo and Alex show a setup where the creepers have nowhere to go beyond the trapdoors, since they can't fit into the 1-high area there or there isn't even a reachable area in the first place. The screenshots by Matthew and Marco shows a similar issue in that there's no solid full block beyond the trapdoor, so while creepers could pathfind towards the trapdoor, they have no incentive to actually go there, since there's no pathfinding target that would make them do so.
From my own tests it looks like creepers flee from cats eventually, and assuming they have somewhere to go, they will also cross trapdoors when doing so. However, it sometimes takes quite a long time until they realize they should flee in the first place, and it seems related to how easily they can find a place to flee to. The same also is true for (wither) skeletons fleeing from dogs. I've seen them sometimes starting to walking to a place beyond the trapdoors instead of running, suggesting they have an easier time to find a random movement goal than to find a place to flee to. (I attached a setup I tested with in 1.18.1.)
[media]I've just been starting work on a creeper farm and playing around with this, and after looking at issues and screenshots posted here and doing some testing, I don't think there's a bug.
@Wormbo 's comment also points this out - but in all of the situations screenshotted, bar 2019-06-30 11.20.45.png, the creepers do not have a valid spot to pathfind to.
In my testing, some things that were causing problems and solutions:
Testing on a glass platform. Glass blocks were not working as a solid block for creepers to pathfind to, and thus they were unable to run away from cats.
Built spawning platform out of slabs. Again these were not valid solid blocks for creepers to pathfind to, and thus unable to run away.
Some issues I can see in screenshots posted here:
No solid block on the other side of the trapdoors for the creepers to pathfind to. In some screenshots there is just void on the other side of the trapdoor, some a solid wall, and one has glass blocks topped with carpet. Creepers can't pathfind to any of these positions.
Encountered this in natural world generation in 1.21.5, though it was a Paper server. (Don’t think it messes with this, though.) The creeper had the high ground, the cat ran towards the creeper, the creeper didn’t run away even when the cat was level with it (locked on to me), and “Cat was blown up by Creeper.”
I can confirm this issue for 1.15.1. Creepers don't appear to be afraid of cats, tamed cats, or ocelots anymore. This may be an issue for people who rely on this behavior for gunpowder farms or as a Creeper defense.
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